You Bet!
by MayzyGreen
Summary: Akane looses a bet to Ranma and now must pay the consequences. A little piece of fluff oneshot.


Author's Note:

A little piece of fluff to console myself after staying up all night writing essays on Proboscis Monkeys, Gestalt Psychology and shudder "What I Will Be Like When I am 70+ Years Old." For pity sake, I am supposed to be a senior in college!

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I don't own Ranma.

You Bet

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction

By Danika Lareyna

It had started out innocently enough. Two figures on their way to school, jogging because they were late- again. Surprisingly, though, a cheerful smile graced the face of Akane Tendo as she ran, her book bag swinging in wide arcs at her side. Her fiancé, Ranma Saotome, kept easy pace with her from atop a fence lining the street. He was not sure why the blue-haired girl was in such a good mood but he was not about to open his mouth and, most likely, ruin it.

As the large, blocky edifice that was Furinkan High came into view, Akane turned to Ranma without breaking stride and, with a smile said, "Hey Ranma, I bet I can kick Kuno straight into the swimming pool."

Ranma blinked at her a moment in surprise then considered her claim. Taking in distance, possible trajectories and wind speed, the pig-tailed martial artist scoffed, "No way."

Akane grinned, "If I do you have to buy me a treat after class."

The boy glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, trying to predict in what twisted way this would eventually lead to his being clobbered about the head with a mallet- as most of his interactions with Akane did. Throwing caution to the wind he replied, "And if ya miss then you owe me somethin'?"

She nodded and replied, "But no ramen or okanomiyaki."

Ranma smirked, "Just your foot; no punches, mallets, or random blunt, heavy objects?"

Akane nodded again.

"You're on."

A harsh gleam of concentration entered into Akane's large, brown eyes. Her target came into sight just inside the school gates, waving his bokken and spouting inane gibberish loquaciously. As she bore down on him, a slightly feral grin alit on her face. Seeing her rushing towards him, the kendoist welcomed her with open arms. At the last possible moment Akane changed her momentum to swing her leg around in a mighty, yet carefully calculated, boot. She froze, her leg still extended, foot above her head, and waited. A long moment later there was a loud splash of impact.

Ranma's only comment was, "Crud."

xXx

As Akane sat in class, internally gloating over her victory and outwardly trying to appear as if she was paying attention to the lecture, she began to consider the implications of the morning's excitement. Casting a quick glance at Ranma, who was in no way trying to appear as if he was paying attention, she found a tiny, affectionate smile playing across her lips. This, she decided, had potential.

xXx

As classes were dismissed, Akane found Ranma standing by the school's front gate. He was leaning against the brick wall with a little, grumpy frown. He kept his eyes locked on the clouds over their heads, pretending that he was not waiting for her, but he fell in with her as she walked by. With a little snort he asked, "Where to?"

Akane shrugged, "You know all the best places. You pick."

His eyebrows rose and the glower lightened from Ranma's eyes. He turned to give her a surprised look but caught himself and turned back to staring at the streets ahead of them.

With a blithe smile she continued, "And stop pouting."

Ranma glared at her and growled, "Turn left here."

xXx

Ranma really did know all of the best places to get food, Akane reflected, relishing a spoonful of the fruit parfait he had bought her. Arching a slender brow she watched with amusement as Ranma shoveled down her parfait and ordered another. Ranma had splashed himself with cold water, triggering his transformation into a girl, before they had entered the shop, insisting that eating parfaits was unmanly. Akane had asked what he would do if he ever discovered a cure for his curse and found himself craving parfaits; Ranma only frowned at her.

As the waitress brought Ranma's second parfait, looking somewhat nervous that the red-head might accidentally eat her hand as well in her attempt to get at the confection, Akane put her plan into action. With a lazy smile she said, "I bet I can finish what's left of my parfait before you can finish yours."

Ranma gave her an incredulous look, spoon frozen before her widely opened mouth. Akane flicked her spoon in an offhand gesture, "I've only got about half left while you've got a whole one. It seems fair to me." She hesitated a moment before pressing on, trying to look confident, "If you win I'll take you to that new amusement park that just opened up."

Ranma lowered her dripping spoon, a suspicious look on her face. "And if you win?"

Akane put on her best impression of Ranma's self-confident smirk, "Then you can't insult me for a week!"

Ranma's eyes darted from Akane to their glasses and back, obviously trying to comprehend what the girl was plotting. Seeing no possible way she could loose, Ranma replied, "You're on."

As they left the ice cream shop, a wide, triumphant smile on Ranma's face, Akane congratulated herself. It was simply out of Ranma's realm of experience that someone might go into a competition knowing that they would loose.

xXx

Akane was pleased to note that Ranma, back in male form, stayed next to her on the ground as they walked towards the amusement park. "You didn't even take three bites before I was done!" he gloated, loudly. The blue-haired girl was too proud of her plan to be bothered by her fiancé's boasts. "Man, you're sure stupid, Akane. Did you even remember my training at the Chardin mansion?" Ok, maybe she was a _little_ bothered.

She was about to express her minor annoyance at his comment by smashing his face into the concrete of the street when her ears picked up the distant but quickly approaching chime of a familiar bicycle bell. Thinking quickly, she exclaimed, "I bet you can't get rid of Shampoo in less than two minutes!"

Ranma stopped in mid-step and turned to look at her. Akane was afraid for half a second that the jig was up and Ranma would refuse to play her game anymore. Instead the look of comprehension in Ranma's eyes turned to amusement and he nodded. Nonchalantly he hopped up to his normal position on the fence above her.

Moments later there was a flash of purple and the Amazon Warrior's bicycle fell, seemingly out of the sky, to land on the fence top inches in front of Ranma. "Nihao Airen!" Shampoo chirped, flinging herself off the bicycle and at Ranma. Rather than his usual tactic at this point (bracing for impact), Ranma bent over nearly backwards so that the Chinese girl overshot and, unable to right herself in time, flew face first into the ditch. A moment later a bedraggled cat surfaced and Ranma, still bent nearly in half and clinging to the fence with only his feet, took one look at it and fled in a panic.

Akane took only a moment to shoot a satisfied smirk at the shocked cat and 'accidentally' knock her bicycle into the water beside her, before running to catch up with her phobic fiancé.

xXx

She found him huddled behind a couple of trashcans a few alleys over. After convincing Ranma that everything was ok and the big, bad kitty-cat could not get him, they continued their journey to the amusement park.

"So," Ranma crowed, "that was _way_ less than two minutes."

Akane snorted and replied, "Sure, but you had to resort to using her curse. And then it took me way more than two minutes to find you again."

Ranma glanced at the girl and, to his relief, found her grinning. "Fine," he said with a dramatic pout, "We'll call that one a draw."

Akane nodded, "We hadn't specified the stakes anyway, so I guess it didn't really count anyway."

"Oh great!" Ranma exclaimed, "Now you tell me! You know what Shampoo'll do to me for that? And it didn't even count!"

The teens stopped and stared at each other for a long moment before simultaneously bursting into laughter.

xXx

After that the day became one challenge after another. Ranma issued as many bets and he accepted, all of them frivolous. Eventually stakes were forgotten and the challenges were issued just for the fun of it. Akane bet Ranma that she could get a discount on their admission to the amusement park just by utilizing the wide-eyed innocent look Ranma had perfected in girl form. To his disgruntlement she won. After that Ranma bet Akane that he could ride the Tilt-o-Whirl more times in a row than she could. To no one's surprise he won that one as well. Challenges were issued over just about every carnival game they came across. Ranma won most of those as well but Akane found, walking along next to her fiancé with her arms full of stuffed animals and sweets which had been his prizes, that she did not mind loosing one bit.

xXx

Laughing and reliving some of the more outrageous performances of the day, Akane and Ranma made their way back to the Tendo dojo. Between the two of them they had consumed most of the sweets and Akane had given the majority of the stuffed animals to children they had passed in the streets. Now she carried only a large, black stuffed horse. Ranma had asked her why she had not kept the pink pig but she had only looked at him with eyes sparkling in amusement in response.

As they came within a few blocks of the Tendo dojo Akane paused and turned to her fiancé. After a moments hesitation, she said, "I bet I can beat you back to the dojo."

Noting the seriousness in Akane's eyes, Ranma asked suspiciously, "What if I loose?"

Akane fought down a blush but still could not meet Ranma's eyes as she replied, softly, "Then you have to give me a kiss."

Ranma's froze over. He stared at the blue-haired girl, staring at her toes and hugging the toy he had won her to her chest. Nervously she shifted from foot to foot and tilted her head a tiny bit to look up at him from under her eyelashes. As their eyes met Ranma's heart jumped a little.

Ranma glanced down the street towards their home and then snorted, "No way you could beat me, even if I didn't just roof-hop there. Fine, you're on."

Akane sighed sadly. Somewhere in the back of her mind she had hoped that Ranma would let her win but his response told her that that would never happen. Morosely, she asked, "And if I loose?"

"Then _you_ have to give _me_ a kiss."


End file.
